Enrique Pla y Deniel (December 19, 1876 – July 5, 1968) was a Spanish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He came from a wealthy Barcelona family and trained at the local seminary and the Gregorian University in Rome before an early career in journalism and seminary teaching. He took possession of the Salamancan see in 1935. "His seven years in Salamanca, from where he played a crucial role in the construction of General Franco's crusade, were rewarded with elevation to the primatial see of Toledo".[1] He served as Archbishop of Toledo from 1941 until his death, and he was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.
On September 30, 1936, Plá issued his famous pastoral letter "The Two Cities", and made his adherence to the insurgents' cause perfectly plain when he vacated the episcopal palace on October 6 in favour of Francisco Franco. His letter was the first lengthy episcopal consideration of the claim to be waging a just war. In it he reiterated St. Augustine's distinction between the terrestrial city, where selfishness prevails, and the celestial city, where love of God replaces all sense of self, and he depicted Spain divided into just such cities; "communism and anarchism are the very ideology leading to the disdain, the hatred for God Our lord; and against them heroism and martyrdom have flourished." The construction of the "earthly city of those without God" had been met by a "heavenly city of God's children". Plá concluded that Thomas Aquinas' conditions for a just war had been met. A rising against the loyalists had been justified. Although, in the eyes of the world, the conflict might have the external appearance of a civil war, in reality it was a crusade. The rebellion had been to re-establish civil order. The Church had to speak out in favour of order, hierarchical government, Christian civilization, religion, fatherland and family. On the same day that Plá y Deniel issued his most famous pastoral letter, General Francisco Franco was proclaimed head of state.[2] The bishop immediately sent a telegram of congratulation anticipating the "glorious resurrection of Christian Spain".
Archbishop Pla y Deniel, accompanied by Francoist Minister of Justice Esteban Bilbao, doing the Fascist salute on his solemn entrance into Toledo Cathedral, 26 March 1942.
